Monday, October 22, 2012

The volunteers of Civil Air Patrol, the US Air Force Auxiliary, in support of "Wreaths Across America" will place wreaths on the final resting place of fallen veterans at National Cemeteries across the nation during this holiday season.

If you would like to participate in this patriotic community service, you can donate $15.00 per wreath.

As a member of the the Long Island Senior Squadron CAP Unit NY 207, it would be my honor to have your wreath(s) placed on the graves of our fallen heroes on Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012 at 12:00 noon at Calverton National Cemetery.

In addition, a portion of the proceeds from each wreath purchased goes toward helping our Squadron achieve their training and mission goals.

So, if you would like to donate to this worthy and patriotic cause, please send me an email to TheNewPilotPodBlog@gmail.com and I will give you the details on how to send me your tax deductible contribution. Donations need to be received no later than November 24, 2012.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

This is another episode of what you can do with your private pilot's license besides the typical $100 hamburger or pancake breakfast flight, I welcome Carl Valeri from the Aviation Careers Podcast into the virtual hanger to talk about flying careers.

I know a number of private pilots,including myself who would love to turn their hobby into a career. Carl is an airline captain and very experienced in counseling pilots on careers. So I figured who better to have on the podcast then Carl to discuss turning the passion of flying into a career.

Carl gives some great advice and suggestions on the different types of jobs that you can do in the aviation industry. It is not just flying for a regional or major airlines. Their are endless opportunities; maybe you want to teach ground school, be a banner tower or manage an FBO. Maybe you are looking for a mid-life career change or just looking for a part-time job while still maintaining your current one. Listen in and Carl will give you the information you need to map your career path.

I hope you enjoy the podcast and it gives you some ideas on what you can do to turn your passion into a career. Even if it is a part-time job so you can have a little extra money to pay for your $100 hamburger.

Some information about Carl Valeri. He is a co-host on the Stuck Mic Avcast, blogger on his website ExpertAviator.com, host of the AViation Careers podcast and a CFI. He does this all on his spare time when not flying in the left seat of an Embraer as a Captain of an airline. He has also volunteered at Sun-N-Fun where he was a field reporter.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

In this episode I welcome Alex Turnbull into the virtual hanger. Alex is a mountain flying instructor at the Wakatipu Aero Club in Queenstown, New Zealand. This is another episode of what you can do with your certificate aside from the typical $100 hamburger or pancake breakfast flight.
Listen in as Alex talks about mountain and remote strip flying in this unique and challenging airspace. He also talks about the unique requirement of private pilot training in New Zealand, hint it involves mountain flying.

I hope Steve and Grant from the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast don't get angry with me for encroaching on their part of the world.

Below is information from Gareth Allen, in charge of promotion for the club, on the club itself and the area.

The aero club flies four cessna 172s, a cessna 206, and a Tecnam P2002JF. Most of the club revenue comes from flights into Milford Sound, a popular scenic area, with a challenging approach and landing
at Milford Sound airstrip. The strip itself is 1800ft long, at the intersection of two valleys and the sound itself, producing a washing machine of turbulence, and an awkward traffic pattern. On busy summer days the airspace can get quite busy, with Islanders, Caravans, and smaller planes shuffling tourists in and out from Queenstown. Weather in the area is quite changeable, making the flight impossible roughly a third of the days during the summer, as all tourism operations are done under VFR. Often when weather is marginal, some passes into the area will be closed, making local knowledge of the network of creeks and valleys in and out of the sound essential.

Flight training makes up the rest of the club's income, with a mixture of overseas and local pilots earning PPLs, CPLs, and doing mountain flight training. There is no instrument flight training at Queenstown,
as the IAFs are all at ~10k feet, and the DHs at 4000 (runway elevation is 1200ft). The specialty here is mountain flying, as every flight that leaves Queenstown interacts with the mountains, and there
are an almost endless supply of new valleys to explore. A few dozen remote strips of ranging difficulty within a half hour's flight round out the saddle-crossing, low flight, and contour flight training.
There's also a beach landing strip 40 minutes away, for beach operations training.

Given Queenstown's reputation as the "adventure capitol of the world," many tourists want an aviation experience that is less scenic, and more exhilarating. The club gives trial flights daily during the
summer months, mostly to foreign tourists, through the river valleys and back over the lake to Queenstown. At the high end of the adrenaline spectrum is the aerobatic flight, using a Pitts Special.
The Pitts is known for being extremely difficult to fly, and especially to land. It can't be landed with a "wheel landing" and instead needs a three-point landing. At that flight attitude there is zero forward visibility, meaning that pilots must use peripheral vision to keep lined up with the runway and avoid ground looping.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

In this episode I take you along as my flying buddy Dave Torrente and I fly the up the Hudson River on what is known as the City Tour.

We transversed the New York Class B Airspace Hudson River Exclusion Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA), flying northbound with Manhattan on our right and NJ on our left.

This is another episode in my series on things that a pilot can do besides the $100 hamburger after receiving his or her PPL.

What you will hear is the cockpit audio as we flew from HWV along the south shore of LI, past the rockaways and Coney Island, up and over the Verrazano bridge, past ground zero where we saw the new 9/11 memorials and freedom tour, past governor’s island and the statue of liberty. We continued up the Hudson past the Intrepid with the Concord on its deck, past Yankee stadium, over the GWB to the Alpine tower which marks the end of the exclusion.

The cockpit audio is pretty much unchanged. I did remove some dead air but the running time is pretty close to the actual time of the flight. I did break into the audio with some comments, but I want the listeners to experience what it would be like to fly the New York Class B Airspace Hudson River Exclusion Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA).

So what is the SFRA? The exclusion is airspace that has been carved out between EWR, LGA and JFK airspace and goes up the Hudson and east river.

Up until 2009 it was known as the Hudson River Class B exclusion and the rules of the road were not mandatory. On November 19, 2009 the FAA issued an amendment to Part 93 which established a Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) and defined operational procedures for pilots within the SFRA. This made the rules of the road such as where to fly, the altitude to fly, the speed to fly at and what and where to communicate became mandatory. This came about after a mid-air collision in 2008 between a fixed wing aircraft and a helicopter.

What I hope that everyone takes away from this podcast, is that if you prepare correctly, follow the rules and fly the airplane, you can easily handle flying near and through some of the busiest airspace in the world. A low time or high time pilot can add flying the Hudson Corridor as one of the things that can be done after getting his or her certificate.

A shoutout to Dave Torrente (@DJTorrente). Every flight I take with Dave is fun. At least this time we were able to complete the flight and share it with a student pilot. Our next planned flight is back up to KASH for the UCAP meetup on February 25.

Monday, December 26, 2011

On the third anniversary of receiving my pilot's license, I look back at 2011 to see if the goals that I had set at the end of 2010 were met.

In 2011

I logged time in 2 different aircraft; Tecnam Sierra and of course the SportCruiser

I logged

15 flights (7 less than 2010)

21.4 PIC hours (3.6 less than 2010) and all LSA PIC hours

9.1 XC hours (5.6 more than 2010)

Landed at 6 different airports

I went over 100 PIC hours

Had my first BFR

So how did I do? Did I meet the goals I set out at the end of 2010 for 2011?

Looking back, 2011 was a mixed year for me. I did get more XC hours but they were mostly from 2 flights to the UCAP meet up in Nashua NH. One we made and the other was aborted due to weather. That being said, they were the 2 longest flights since my long XC. And both were great learning experiences

In 2011 I joined two volunteer organizations. I always wanted to use my pilot’s license to help others so I joined the Civil Air Patrol and Patient AirLift Services. Patient AirLift Services or PALS (http://www.palservices.org/), is an organization that arranges free air transportation based on need to individuals requiring medical care and for other humanitarian purposes.

Overall, 2011was a good year. I continued to fly and meet new friends through aviation and my podcast. Have a listen to see if I met my goals and what my goals are for 2012.

I would like to wish all of my listeners and your families, Happy Holidays and a safe and joyful New Year.

Monday, November 21, 2011

In this episode, I welcome John Telfeyan to the virtaul hanger for a chat about flying to Oshkosh. John is a VFR pilot and has flown to AirVenture 5 times. A couple by himself. John shares his experiences about flying to the big show, what he learned along the way and his thoughts on how to do it safely and succesffully. John as I said is a VFR pilot with around 500 hours and busts the myth that you need to be a high-time IFR pilot in order to fly to Oshkos. Listening to him talk, you realize that a realtively low-time VFR pilot can do it safely and successfully.

John also talks about his role in building Terafugia's rodable aircraft the Transition.It was an extremely interesting conversation on the safety feature, flight testing the production prototype and the new configuration of the Transition.

This was an enjoyable conversation where I learned a lot about the thought process of flying a cross-country flight. Just so happen the flight was to Oshkosh. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and also learned a little about what it takes to fly to Oshkosh.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

In this episode, I talk with David Torrente about the recent flights we have taken together. All of them were up to Nashua NH to meet the gang at the UCAP meet-up. All three of them were somewhat adventurist and we learned a lot from them. We discuss what happened, our decisions, why we made the decisions and most importantly what we learned from each flight. So if you want to hear what happened along the way to Nashua, please join us in the virtual hangar. I hope you enjoy the discussion and maybe even learn something from it.

As always, I had goals for this flight. One was to go on a cross-country flight. This is the one area where I would like to improve upon. Most of my hours up until this year have been either spent practicing or short sight-seeing trips around LI. I really want to fly more XC flights and get more comfortable landing at unfamiliar airports. As you will hear from this episode, Dave has more experience than me in XC flying and there is no one better to fly them with.

A second goal was to meet the Jack and the gang for brunch at the midfield café. Isn’t that what getting your PPL is all about? Flying to an airport with a good restaurant to hang out with friends.

Not only were these goals met, but as you will hear, we had some practice de-icing a plane and diverting to other airports.

Dave & Jack in conversation.

Kristen and Len from the Stuck Mic AvCast.

Myself, Dave and Jack.

Dave, Rick and Dorrie in front of Rick's 172

The gang chatting after a good meal

Waiting for take-off. (Photo by Jeff Ward)

Rick next to his plane

Shoutouts:

1) David Torrente, an excellent pilot and great flying companion. I look forward to many more XC flights with him. Hopefully not as eventful as our last few.

2) Jack Hodgson for arranging the meetups. They are a lot of fun. A great opportunity to meet up with friends that you only see at aviation events.

3) Dave Pascoe from LiveAtc.net, Rick Felty and Len Costa from the Stuck Mic AvCast (it was also great meeting Rick’s wife Dorrie and Len’s girlfriend Kristen), Jeff Ward from behind the scenes at UCAP, Rick Sheppe and Jim Goldman who were at the meetup.

4) A big shoutout to Bradley approach who helped us find the airport when we needed to land.